Valerie Freeman is the Co-founder and CEO Of Freeman+Leonard.  Valerie started the company as Art Squad in 1990 to train commercial artists, illustrators, animators and other technical creatives to use emerging software to ply their trade on a computer, to consult in the emerging commercial art technology area, and to place creatives in contract and full time positions. In 2010, with the addition of Kathy Leonard as a partner, the company became Freeman+Leonard and expanded into new and emerging marketing, creative and technology fields.

Valerie’s entrepreneurial ventures with Freeman+Leonard and other companies she has started and grown, have led to many accolades and recognitions. She has been inducted into the Dallas Business Hall of Fame, the Tech Titans Hall of Fame, and the Women’s Business Enterprise Hall of Fame. She has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Alliance of Technology and Women, and the Dallas Business Journal for her work with women in technology. In 2020 she received the Orbie Leadership Award from the Dallas CIO Association. She was selected for the Power 50 women in Dallas by the Texas Diversity Council and the Women Paying It Forward Award by Women Leading Technology. In past years she has received the Tech Titans Community Hero Award, the Girl Scouts Women of Distinction Award, the Dallas (now Texas) Women’s Foundation Maura Award, the Dallas Regional Chamber’s Athena Award, the Women’s Business Council of the Southwest’s WBE of the Year Award, NAWBO’s Woman Business of the Year Award, and Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Valerie currently serves on the Board of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce and Advisory Boards of Truist Bank, Alliance of Technology and Women, and Encore Council of the Women’s Business Council of the Southwest  Valerie holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Education from the University of Houston where she was honored as a Distinguished Alum.

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